ottawa foodies

Every day at 2pm I prepare my home-roasted coffee at work or at home using the excellent Aerobie Aeropress to produce a strong double shot of espresso-like brew. I add to this a single packet of white sugar, swirl it in a mug, and then dilute it with an equal part of hot water to make a gutsy Americano. It's a ritual for me, and it makes a damn fine cup of coffee! I have become a coffee snob...

Anyway, today at 2pm, I happened to be in Bayshore Mall so I opted to appease the caffeine monkey at the Second Cup on the ground floor. I shunned an Americano (Starbucks makes the only big-chain one I like) in favour of the darkest brewed coffee available, the Continental Dark (scoring a 5 out of 5 on their "robustness" scale). When I perched at a little round table and took a cautious sip I experienced the following in quick succession: cardboard taste from the cup, hot and watery liquid with no depth of flavour, anger, frustration, sadness, resignation. I paid almost two bucks for a big cup of water with a faint aroma of burnt coffee beans! :-(

This experience highlights the Foodie's Curse: the more exposure you get to high quality foods and ingredients, the less you enjoy the run of the mill stuff. Maybe the "ignorance is bliss" cliché applies to foodie knowledge too?

So what do you think? Is raising the bar on food quality worth doing even if it causes you to be repeatedly disappointed?

It is a curse and I have it too. I spend a lot of time seeking out good stuff to cook at home rather than being let down by mundane restaurant fare.

I won't eat anything that isn't worth eating unlike others who will grab anything when hungry.

For certain genres (mediocre Japanese is my case in point), i've decided its best to light a candle than curse the darkness. I probably lack your spine (and talent), Pan! :)

That noted, i do share FF's contempt for 2nd Cup, and after a recent dark roast from the Carlingwood Mall branch, i've sworn to never go back: nothing but praises for the staff (mature and friendly), but man, what a tepid, poor imitation of a dark roast!!

oh it's not a curse
it only helps you enjoy the finer things even more
and once in a while you find a diamond in the rough

as for coffee, I only drink Jamaica Blue Mountain or Kona

I see it as being a good thing... most of the time. Being picky about food quality keeps me from eating a lot of crap that would be terrible for me, like McDonalds, frozen pre-made dinners, cheap junk full of fillers and chemicals, etc.

On the other hand, being less of a foodie would make life easier when trying to find lunch when I only have a few minutes to do so! But I can't have everything. :p

LOL, as much as I am becoming more picky about food... "The Man" has introduced me to fine wine to the point now that I am totally spoiled. True, I'll drink whatever is served to be polite (when out with friends or family in particular), but PLONK is miles away from the good stuff.

Compared to coffee... this is a very expensive addiction.
I'm becoming a "wine snob".
;-)

Being picky is earning me a snob reputation amongst some of my friends, but I just like what I like. I've gotten better at restaurants, as long as I set certain expectations before I go, I definitely enjoy myself better. Wine and scotch are my biggest areas of snobbery after martinis, which I'll rarely order when I'm out. I just can't bring myself to drink inferior wine, especially on the first bottle. It doesn't have to be expensive, it just has to taste good.

Don't tell anybody, but it's there's an 80% chance that a wine that someone gives me as a host gift will be exchanged at the LCBO for something I actually want. Better the $12 bottle of wine that I like, rather than the $12 bottle of wine that I don't!

I usually take the bottles I'm not likely to drink on their own, and make sangria with them.

Since I started cooking from scratch more often there are certain basic dishes I would rarely order in a restaurant so I now prefer to order items I would not normally make myself. It just means I get to enjoy better restaurants! I haven’t been in a chain restaurant in years and plan on keeping it that way-;)

The coffee Fresh Foodie ordered sounds like most coffees I have ordered from Second Cup/Tim Hortons/Starbucks. Home roasted coffee is setting the bar a little high for me but I sure love my French press. I have been using one since I was a teenager and won’t part with it.

I agree with tre on the martinis – it seems like no one can else make a proper martini-;)

Chef Obi where do you you find your Kona coffee?! The only place I can find it is at the Whole Foods market in Toronto. I like the one in the gold package since it is 100% Kona and not a blend.

You can find Kona & Blue mountain coffees from time to time at Costco, surprisingly.
www.costco.ca
www.costco.ca

Momomoto - LCBO Exchange... LOL, that's a new one for me. Like Tre I'm more likely to put a disappointment to use in some other way. Last week we opened a bottle of Argentinian Torrontes (a grape new to us) and we didn't like it... found it too "steely, acidic, etc". Even though it wasn't a sipper, it did work out well in a White Wine Chicken dish another night.

PastaL,
I have a friend that goes to Peterborough and T.dot every few months and he brings me back some
I don't drink much coffee perhaps a cup or two a week so it last awhile
but they do make great tiramisu

From Costco:

William Spartivento
Pure Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Beans
1 kg

$99.99

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

WOW !!! A hundred bucks for a kilo of coffee beans !!

I wonder if it's 10 times better than the coffee I roast at home ?

It certainly costs ten times more. (Minus the gas used on the stove and the time taken to roast it)

When I break it down (using the useage rates from the Spartivento website), it works out to about $0.80 per expresso serving.

Then again, a one-way First Class Air Canada flight from Ottawa to Vancouver is only $0.46 per kilometer. Not too shabby at $0.46/km but the $1616.00 price tag is not so attractive.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

FF:

I too have the dreaded curse.

I sometimes need to be careful around my (non foodie) friends when I am decerning about food. They may think I'm judgemental but I'm am truly tring to decerne and NOT judge.

Having said that, I too tried a cup of (Indonesian?) Dark Roast from the Second Cup. And yup !! Pure garbage !! The only purer garbage I came across is the good 'ol Timmies.

Years ago, I went to a Timmies (for my very first time)in Kingston and asked for a Dark Roast ...The server said (with no one else around): "Ohhhhh .. You want a real coffee. You can get that just two blocks down the street."

We both smiled ... then I left.

chimichimi thanks for the heads up on Kona at Costco. I am planning a trip to the Merivale location in a couple of weeks so I will keep my eyes peeled. They also have La Trappe cheese sometimes and I have a bottle of Pinot chilling in the fridge so I am keeping my fingers crossed-;)

Chef Obi thanks for replying. Next time I am in Toronto (hopefully in the fall) I will have to make a trip back to Whole Foods. And the St. Lawrence market. And Kensington market....

This reminds me of one of the best episodes of Corner Gas, where most of the characters find themselves being bumped up a food bracket. Lacey gives Emma and Oscar a nice bottle of wine and they can't go back to the $8 2 Litre bottle with the elephant on the front. Lacey also gives Brent a gift basket with nice jams and he can't go back to what he liked before. To get back at Lacey for bumping them up a wine and jam bracket, they attempt to feed her Emma's special biscuits (to bump her up a biscuit bracket) but instead she arrives late for the brunch and has to settle for frozen meatloaf.....however she discovers a new found love for frozen meatloaf which is the "cheapest, easiest thing to make."

I guess they have similar problems out in Dog River! There is no way to escape the foodie curse!

kpotato - That episode was so awesome. I was bumped up the marmalade bracket just by watching.

I'm still pretty, err, resilient when it comes to bracketing, but I think I have been bumped a little bit up the bread bracket (having not purchased plain ol' white bread in years) and a lot up the French fry bracket (limp, soggy fries make me homicidal.)

kpotato - Cute twist on this topic... Besides wine, just like Momomoto I've been bumped up the Bread Bracket in recent years. "The Man" won't eat white bread (french bread / baguettes excepted) so I've discovered there is an incredible world of "anything but white bread" at the bakery, and loving it.

I have to agree that Second Cup is pretty terrible... you might as well buy your coffee (well, beverage somewhat resembling coffee) at your local convenience store. Most of the other big names aren't much better.

As for drinking only Kona and Blue Mountain, I wish! Last year at this time I was drinking Kona right at its source... sigh. No Kona for me lately, though. We usually buy fair trade beans roasted locally by Francesco's - the quality seems pretty decent.

I think being a food/wine "snob" is just fine... even though we're doomed to have some unhappy culinary experiences from time to time, they just make us appreciate the good stuff even more!

I can't drink the stomach bile they call coffee that comes with breakfast at restaurants. I usually bring my own. I think coffee is just about the only thing I'm a true snob about - not even beer surprisingly enough. I'll drink Blue or Bud or whatever.

Be forewarned that Costco stuff likely isn't Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee. It's labelled "Blue Mountain" coffee and doesn't appear to be the real thing. See the Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica website for resources relating to ensuring you are getting the real thing. www.ciboj.org

I'm not really that impressed with Second Cup coffee anymore, I'm less impressed when I get a coffee there now, so I generally go there as a last resort if I'm out and about and wanting a coffee.

I too use the Aerobie Aeropress and it's just amazing. I find the quality of the coffee similar to good coffee shops' espresso like Bridgehead (my fave). I've used the Bodums etc and find them nowhere near as good as the Aeropress....and the coffee is far less bitter. I can finally make a good coffee at home so I'm pretty happy with it. Have had it for 2 years and it's just starting to wear down now (not bad for about $40 bucks!)

FF: Sorry to hear that you ended up getting a cup of brown hot water.
But you know the difference between good coffee and bad coffee, I think that's a good thing. It makes your foodie life more richer in many dimensions than those who don't know.

When I go to Japanese restaurants in Ottawa, I don't expect what I had in Japan. I eat food as how Canadians translated my food culture in their way. I found it very interesting and many times I was very impressed!
However,I don't go to AYCE sushi place, since I prefer quality more than quantity.

I find it interesting that you are all complaining about the poor quality of good food and saying how "picky" you are. I on the other hand am picky about everything else. I don't like vegetables and don't drink wine, I don't enjoy a rare rib steak and have rarely order from a menu without modifying the item.

Things are changing for me though, introducing myself to new things seems to be getting easier, and now I can't even go into a fast food joint, The smell of those restaurants makes me sick to my stomach, and the food is so bland it is hard for me to find a place to eat out that I truly enjoy.

Dinner with my wife used to be Kelseys or Montana's and now were going to Au Pied Du Cochon and The Wakefield Mill. Yes, the cost is more expensive but the food is so much better that someday (although I am not their yet) I will hopefully be a food snob myself.

Thanks for your inspriation!

come to mention it, we do get more critical with restaurants. We have been disappointed more often than not with the food and not sure why.

Now tern that 180 degrees and being in the food biz, granted not a restaurant, (mobile healthy fast food) its a constant challenge to come up with items that will intice people to try. (akine to fishing...best bait, biggest fish) The hardest part are peoples conception of what is delicious, especially with our product, taking what is seen in Canada as a side dish and making it a main dish..."if only they try it" is often said around here.
Peoples tastes are definitely SLOWLY changing in Canada and all for the better!

spud guy:

I know many people are very conservative when it comes to food.
If the food and /or its concept is too foreign, it is difficult to let people try it.
One outstanding phenomena is the acceptance of sushi in North America.
"raw fish on rice" became very popular here, I think it is because not only sushi, but also Japanese culture was introduced at the same time. People became more "familiar" with Japan. "Familiarity" is the critical key in any business, I think.
Benihana is one of the biggest Japanese food business succeeded in North America.
The way Rocky Aoki introduced Japanese food to American was quite unique and interesting.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benihana

By the way,I need to try your food! seems very yummy. I love potato. Canadian potatoes are so delicious!! Usually I just boil it and eat without any seasonings. What do you offer in the drink menu?

i am happy to slum it at a sub-par restaurant more easily than i am to eat someone's terrible cooking. i have friends with whom i will only dine out. i just can't stomach their terrible cooking.

and sadly, i've never met a bottle of wine i can't make friends with. i am so happy for gifts of wine when people come over, i happily take it and find a way to enjoy it. i've found that bad wine usually tastes much better after a bottle of good wine ;).

Great thread. Agreed, this is a bit of a curse, but I like to think of it more as an enlightenment. Having a much more refined palate spares me vulgar meals that I used to enjoy. Sometimes to the point where I try something I used to like and I actually wonder if they don't make it as good as they used to, but that is usually not the case, as I go with a friend or relative who never stopped going (so they are my baseline) and they insist the restaurant food is the same as it ever was.

Ever since my girlfriend made me veal parmigiana, I can never eat it at a restaurant again, even at a real Italian place.

Ditto burgers. In the summer, I refrain from burgers besides the ones I make on the charcoal grill medium-rare, with ground beef courtesy of Rolling Acres ranch. Same for steaks. Life's too short for overcooked meat, in my book.

For coffee, my Moroccan purveyor in Aylmer has ruined me for every coffee shop coffee. I used to like SC, but now everything is like FF's recent experience compared to my dear Majoub's products.

PS, I'm planning on doing an official coffee review on this establishment, but meantime if you're ever on Principale in Aylmer, you can find Majoub's tidy little shop Aroma Select in the CIBC strip mall across from the Galeries. Besides coffees and teas, he has chocolates, spices, olive oil, almond oil, Jura and other machines, Guzzini stuff, and even some hand-crafted Berber cups among other things he brings from the homeland. He also has Blue Mountain at about $13/100g if I recall correctly. He made me an espresso once with it, omg, my single best coffee experience ever!

HFF: I have to agree with you. The husband suggested that we try and talk his sister into cooking for us this week, because we've cooked for her and her daughter so much. Is it wrong that I cringed at the thought of her subpar cooking?

I have to agree with everyone, especially LWB...

My boyfriend and I have dinner once a week with another couple. We usually cook a from-scratch, homemade dinner at our house and we have been doing this for about 5 months now. While they are not foodies, they are open to trying new things. In the past we've made Tikka Masala, stuffed pork tenderloin, roast herbed lemon chicken, my homemade double crossed bacon wrapped burgers (my own recipe), with spicy sweet potato fries...the list goes on.

However, the two times we've been to their house for dinner, they have cooked us: 1. frozen, chicken fingers, taquitos, and chicken wings (yes, all in one meal)
2. chicken alfredo (from a jar)

Sometimes the foodie curse is hard to keep under control...

KMA: That reminds me of the time that friends stayed with us and offerred to cook a fancy dinner...it ended up being pasta (packaged) alfredo (jar) with garlic bread (packaged).

And then they got into a fit because the husband and sister-in-law asked everyone to serve themselves when we made stir-fry. Because, y'know, we'd hate to give someone too much rice.

It looks like I am not the only one who has friends that can't cook-;) One of my married friends and her husband used to survive mostly on take-out meals and frozen dinners. Last year she and hubby decided to cook more meals from scratch so they invested in a slow cooker. One day last summer we met for lunch and since she knew I liked to cook she brought me one leftover serving of a stew that she and hubby made the night before. I opened the container and there were some unidentifiable cubes of mystery meat and beans of some sort in something that looked like brown gravy. She called me when I got back to the office to ask if I had a look at her stew. To which I replied that is an interesting looking beef stew - no vegetables?... She was so offended because I didn't recognize the meat as being chicken and the brownish colour was a result of adding one can of kidney beans undrained. I had one spoonful when I got home and it had the consistency of pablum and no flavour whatsoever. I ended up tossing it. When I met her for lunch again a few weeks later to return the container she forgot all about the stew and hasn't offered anymore leftovers since. I'm not sure if they are still cooking however.

I dunno, I think you guys are talking about Gourmets, not Foodies. At least according to the FAQ on a popular Ottawa Foodie site :

ottawafoodies.com/about#snobs

Do any of you fall asleep during sex? That could be a sign that you've crossed the line ...

The only thing I'm a food snob about is coffee. I cannot drink anything but my own home roasted anymore. OK, that's a lie - like FF I can stomach Starbucks. But I can eat just about anything else. Heck, even beer - I will gladly drink a Budweiser, Keith's, or even Corona. At a 67s game a few weeks ago I actually paid 8 bucks for a tall boy of Molson! Ack! My 2 favorite kinds of beer are : free & cold

Zym, I think you're as guilty of it as the rest of us. You talked about the fish and chips at BDT as being subpar, and surely not all of your reviews are rave, am I right?

I think, what we're talking about here, is how foodies, people who like to eat, naturally seek out 'better' food (however they want to define that). In doing so, they've raised their expectations of food in their daily lives and are more inclined to be dissapointed by something that is in their mind, subpar.

It's not an issue of being a snob. It's an issue of having preferences and understanding where they fit and when they will and will not be met

(I'm sorry if that sounds a bit jumbled, I'm quite tired...)

zymurgist I am surprised by these comments from you of all people. Now that you are canning your own veggies and baking your own bread would you go back to eating store-bought canned veggies and breads?...

I get what you are saying - and I'm only half serious :-)

Yes, I wrote about subpar food at restaurants. But this is not "everyday life". When I go out and spend $100 or more, I expect something really good. If I were having a $6 shawarma, it would have to be pretty bad with mold on it or something for me to complain much about it other than to say "not the best I've had"

The fact is, that in my every day life I am trying to lower the bar on what my expectations should be. At least in terms of "pizzazz" and "something new" or "over the top". One of my favorite lunches is pressure-canned brown rice with a very modest sauce on top - often just honey. I love to cook, and love to eat, but my theme is "keep it simple". If it has 15 ingredients and as many steps, with half of them being things I cannot even pronounce, then I'm not the least bit interested.

I am trying to raise the bar on the quality of my food. Knowing where it comes from. How it was raised. But still, keeping it nice and simple. I like to stay humble.

I think that constantly raising the bar is inherently unsustainable, and the biggest part of the problem our planet is facing right now.

pasta lover - that is keeping it simple to the extreme, really. canning and baking. quality. simple. nothing over-the-top. nothing the least bit fancy.

Anyway, I guess going back through this thread there really is not mention of much of the "over the top" stuff that I do often see on this site. You do mostly all seem to be stressing just quality rather than "fancy".

So, my apologies. Carry on :-P

All I can say is that coffee and beer are so personal...To each of us...enjoy it how you like it! I am off to Mexico for 2 weeks knowing that "Canadian" coffee isn't an option--I will just love the Mexican (and the only thing I will be looking forward to coming home too is my coffee here!!) And I love the Cuervo also...

We're a household that makes our own bread and breadcrumbs we jar our own stock and tomato sauces regularly. I roll pasta, make my own crackers, make dumplings and pizza. We make pestos, jams, ketchups (ie. not just tomato) and all sorts of preserves from old recipes discovered online/in hand-written books etc...

That being said, I find that its all about expectation.

I adore street food. Discovering that cheap hole in the wall joint where you can eat for under $10 gets me all giddy! I seek them out and enjoy returning. Grazing on things is fun and we enjoy a new flavour / site / smell experience of a new 'find'. Looking straight into the farmer's eyes and thanking them for your produce is also a plus.

I too am critical of restaurants, especially when they claim to be one thing ie/ fine dining and turn out to be another. We also try as much as possible to stay away from (non local) chain restaurants. For the most part I try ordering things that I don't cook. It is rare that I will ever order pasta in a restaurant. Its cheap and has an even higher profit margin, such a gimme for the cook and most often a disappointment and done poorly.

I want to eat food where the person who cooked it is proud of what ever it is that they made. I don't care about their pedigree and how many places they've studied or what prestigious place they've worked. What matters is what is on the plate (in my hands etc.). Did they touch it? Taste it as they made it? Is this something they too would eat? Would it upset them if they messed it up? Better still if its a dish like Mama taught them or some grandma in the back of a store is the one who actually made it. I'm in! Good food doesn'thave to be fancy and often isn't. For me, food starts failing when people stop giving a damn and there is no pride in what they do.
------

I take being invited to friends' houses for what its worth an invitation into their lives and to share a meal and for them to be hosts too. For our non- foodie friends this can be VERY intimidating. They've expressed it sometimes with words and sometimes by actions subtle and non. We let them know that we're just happy for the invite and to spend time with them.

For the non cooks, they've seen that we have KD and Jello on our shelves and are shocked. Yes, we can do one hell of a baked "Mac and Cheese" from scratch but sometimes when it comes down to it, I want the blue box and day-glow orange food. Its fast, convenient and sometimes you just don't want to muck around in the kitchen. Also the "comfort foods factor". Its a childhood memory food you just don't want to mess with. Its a category you just can't mess with and its also an easy meal to make someone else feel more at ease with hosting us. Sometimes after the ice breaker meal they come out of their culinary shells and try other things. When we host, we also get them involved in helping after all, its not a restaurant and cooking together can break the ice too. The best food experiences are often shared in rolling up your sleeves.
Be humble, ask for help even when you don't really need it as it can help them see what your doing and learn if they want to or just feel more involved. "I'm running behind, could you grate this cheese?" Can turn into pride for they 'helped' with this meal too and might want to get more involved next time.

I’ve learned a great deal since joining this site in January and constantly benefit from the members’ depth of knowledge. I am particularly in your debt for the information on the Aeropress coffee system.
After reading the laudatory comments in this thread I decided to buy one (having seen it advertised several times in the Ashton Green catalogue but considering it just another kitchen gadget that I could add to my drawer of failed shortcuts to food prep nirvana).
Our Aeropress arrived Friday; Saturday morning marked out fist attempt – using Equator’s Espresso - and like so many others who have contributed to this thread, Mrs. Grette and I are now well and truly spoiled.
We have made no other coffee like it at home. It surpasses our Bodum by several degrees although its manufacturer’s claims about speed and ease of use are a tad sanguine. I’ll be getting an additional one to take to work and will continue to eschew that dark brown vaguely coffee-like liquid sold in so many restaurants.
Thanks again.